Location

Start Date

17-6-2014 10:40 AM

End Date

17-6-2014 12:00 PM

Abstract

A promising measure for mitigating climate change is to store large volumes of C02 captured from large point-source carbon emitters in deep saline aquifers. In vulnerable systems, water resources impacts of large-scale C02 storage need to be evaluated and assessed before industrial­ size storage projects get under way. In California's southern San Joaquin Basin the land surface uplift caused by large C02 injection projects land deformation could have the potential to create reverse flow along certain canal reaches, or to reduce canal deliveries to agricultural land and managed wetlands. The impact of C02 storage on shallow water resources was compared to the expected stresses on the groundwater and surface water systems from ongoing pumping using a version of the Central Valley Hydrological Model CVHM extended vertically to capture reservoir geology. Results of simulations demonstrated that such pumping-related deformations in the area might be one order of magnitude larger than those from C02 injection. In the basin the low permeability geological layers between shallow effectively limit pressure changes from migrating far in vertical directions, downward or upward.

A promising measure for mitigating climate change is to store large volumes of C02 captured from large point-source carbon emitters in deep saline aquifers. In vulnerable systems, water resources impacts of large-scale C02 storage need to be evaluated and assessed before industrial­ size storage projects get under way. In California's southern San Joaquin Basin the land surface uplift caused by large C02 injection projects land deformation could have the potential to create reverse flow along certain canal reaches, or to reduce canal deliveries to agricultural land and managed wetlands. The impact of C02 storage on shallow water resources was compared to the expected stresses on the groundwater and surface water systems from ongoing pumping using a version of the Central Valley Hydrological Model CVHM extended vertically to capture reservoir geology. Results of simulations demonstrated that such pumping-related deformations in the area might be one order of magnitude larger than those from C02 injection. In the basin the low permeability geological layers between shallow effectively limit pressure changes from migrating far in vertical directions, downward or upward.